It is release day for the seventh Athenian Mystery. Never in my wildest dreams would I have predicted that I'd see this many books published.
This remarkable thing has happened because you, my dear readers, have very kindly read the books. For which I thank you.
The usual plan on this occasion is to show people the new cover. I'm going to do the reverse. Here's the back.
You are looking at the rear end of a book because my Esteemed Editor has listed one review comment for each book in the series. One review blurb for The Pericles Commission, one for The Ionia Sanction, one for Sacred Games, one for The Marathon Conspiracy, for Death Ex Machina, for The Singer From Memphis and for Death On Delos.
All these reviews have something in common. Every one of them is a starred review. Every. Single. One. In fact all the books have received starred reviews from multiple sources, but with a shortage of space on the back the publisher went with the well known Publishers Weekly comments.
Not that I as a working author would ever boast or anything like that, but I admit to being rather chuffed. Of course, having pointed this out, I have officially queered my luck and it pretty much guarantees that the next one won't be. On every new book I've privately promised my family that the next one won't star, because nobody's that lucky. But apparently I am.
So thank you to everyone who made the luck happen: my family, my agent, my editor, the zillion people inside a publisher who make a book happen, and thank you to you, too. Because ultimately, books happen because people read them.